They are friends after all
by Chuk49
Summary: The true story of what happened at the North Pole
1. Chapter 1

**A/N These characters belong to Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady**

Leonard had never experienced such a rapid changing of emotions in such a short time. Just a few moments before, he had been enjoying literally the happiest moment of his life when he realized that Penny had romantic feelings for him. The kiss had been amazing. Then, it had all been torn away when Sheldon had interrupted after Raj and Howard had evidently got upset about something and told him about the electric can opener before Leonard had a chance to. Then, angered and frustrated over Sheldon's disrupting him and Penny, he had exacerbated the situation by attacking Sheldon with the lowest point of the expedition when they had discussed killing him. Later, Leonard had cooled down and gave Sheldon honest information about him sending the premature emails, but by that time the situation had deteriorated to the point where it sounded condescending.

From there it got even worse; as Sheldon stomped out, Penny went to console him. Leonard could only imagine what Sheldon would tell her. His wonderful feeling with Penny seemed forever ago now. He wondered if it would ever return.

When Penny returned, it was as bad as he feared; Sheldon had told her they had robbed him of a Nobel Prize. He knew he had no quick answer. He also realized that she was right, he needed to talk to Sheldon. Hoping she would later give him a chance to explain, he sadly left.

When he arrived in the apartment, he discovered that Sheldon had locked himself in his room and resisted any effort to talk. Deciding that it may just be better to let things settle down, Leonard decided to go to bed even though it was only eight o'clock. His night was spent tossing and turning as his mind went from one thought to another.

In the morning, Sheldon still refused to talk or even listen. He avoided all of them at lunch. When Leonard finally decided enough was enough and was going to confront him in his office, he got a message from Sheldon (addressed to Dr. Leonard Hofstadter) stating he would not need his services to get home. Leonard immediately went to Sheldon's office, but it was empty and it appeared he had left for the day. Leonard realized he was not getting any work done and decided to leave early and be sure he talked to Sheldon that night.

As he entered the apartment, he didn't see Sheldon anywhere. As he walked back into the living room, he saw his luggage still packed. It was a sign of Sheldon's frame of mind that he had not gotten on Leonard for not unpacking. Deciding it would be something to keep him occupied, he started to unpack. He had not gotten very far when he saw the velvet bag. Stopping, he took it out and sat down. He reached in and pulled out the present he had brought back for Penny. He wondered how she would react if he gave it to her now. Was she still upset about Sheldon? Would she give him a chance to present his side of the story? What the hell, he had made it for her when as far as he knew they were still just friends. Gathering himself up, he headed over to Penny's apartment and knocked on the door.

Opening the door, she looked guarded but said, "Hey, Leonard."

"With all that happened yesterday, I forgot to give you this."

Opening the bag, she pulled out what was inside and held it up to the light, saying, "This wasn't necessary." Then with a quizzical look, "What is it?"

"It's a snowflake from the North Pole. I put it in a solution so it will last forever."

"Oh, that is so cool. It is the most romantic thing I ever received."

Leonard was pleased by her reaction and especially her use of the work romantic. Deciding to press his luck, he asked, "Can we talk?"

He saw her bring her guard back up and she asked, "Have you talked to Sheldon?"

"No, I've tried, but so far he has refused to. I decided when he comes home tonight, I'll make him listen if I have to trap him in the bathroom."

"What did you want to talk about?"

"I want to give you my side of the story. It will take some time. I think you need to know the full story of what happened."

She looked like she might turn him down, but then she seemed to make a decision. "All right, come in." As he entered, she asked, "Do you want anything?"

"Water, thanks."

As he sat on the couch, she brought him a water bottle and a bottle of wine and a glass for herself. She sat on the other end of the couch and poured herself a glass and looked at him expectantly.

Taking a drink from the bottle, he began.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Still don't own anything. To Guest – Is not a Shenny – if there is romance it will be between Penny and Leonard.**

 **Now, I know the science of this is really bad, but I never really understood what was happening according to the show. I hope it won't affect your enjoyment of the story. Could we chalk it up to poetic license? Suspension of Judgement?**

As Leonard began, Penny continued to be hit with conflicting emotions. She trusted Leonard, but there was no doubt that something had happened. Leonard had admitted they were so angry, they discussed killing Sheldon. Although she of course knew that was just words, it still showed the mood they were in. Then there was Sheldon saying they had robbed him of a Noble Prize. In their anger, had they done something they never intended? She wanted to hear what Leonard had to say, but she also strongly felt he needed to talk to Sheldon.

"The first thing you need to realize is that we all wanted the experiment to succeed as much as Sheldon. It would be a great advancement for our careers, even more so if Sheldon would win a Nobel Prize. Heck, we might even have a chance to be included with him as a member of a team. Second, these expeditions are set up like a military operation. Since Sheldon was the head of the expedition, we agreed to follow his orders. The only exceptions being if we felt he was breaking the law or exposing us to unnecessary danger."

"I also need to give you an idea of how we set up and how the process worked."

"The first piece of equipment was the base. It was a metal square frame, measuring six feet by six feet with spikes for legs that went into the snow. It came in four pieces and clicked together. We assembled it outside. At each corner, there were slots for three sensors, or twelve in all. The sensors themselves were flexible metal cables about a foot long with a globe mounted on the end. The globe contained the computer that could be set to practically an infinite number of settings. The trick was determining the correct setting to detect the Monopoles. The expedition had been authorized because of the paper Sheldon had submitted showing how he believed he had found a way to determine the correct setting. There was also a recording disk mounted on the frame that recorded all that was detected and marked if anything matched the indicated setting. Each morning we would retrieve it and attach it to Sheldon's laptop to store the data and see if there were any hits. We then backed it up for redundancy."

Seeing that Penny's eyes were kind of glazing over, Leonard hurriedly said, "OK that's all of that. Sorry, but makes it easier to understand as I go on."

"I think the first couple weeks were the best time of the whole trip. Everything was new and exciting. The cabin, the view of the crystal unblemished snow. And of course, we were all excited and confident."

"Sheldon's first decision was that he would remain in the cabin while the three of us would do the outside work. In those first weeks, that was certainly all right with us. Whenever we did go outside, because of the possibility of a sudden storm that could quickly reduce visibility, we were tethered to the building and to each other. Raj was attached to the building by a cable attached to a belt around his waist. I was then tied to him and then Howard to me. Both Howard and I could reach the frame and we did the actual work."

"It took about two days for Sheldon to initially program all the sensors. We then took them out an installed them in the frame. Then it was just a matter of gathering and replacing the disk each day."

"As I said, for the first two or three weeks, everyone remained confident and in a good mood. But as we came to the end of the first month, which was a third of the time we would be there, morale began to drop. Up to this time, Sheldon had been Sheldon, but now he started to move it up a notch, wondering about the team he had selected. It was no more than we were expecting and we were all feeling a little frustrated."

"As we approached the halfway point, Sheldon informed us that his proposal had included a possible five settings instead of just one and we needed to start testing them all. We were excited because now we had another set of possibilities; but our ardor dropped a bit when we realized what was involved. We had to exchange out the sensors every time we tried a different setting. To get the best effect, we needed to keep rotating sensors as Sheldon would reprogram them. The end result was that we were outside up to ten times a day, trading out sensors. Even then, we were still more than willing to do so because of the increased chance for success."

"But as the weeks passed and we passed the half way point, tensions started to increase, Sheldon was really laying it on, talking about how wrong he had been to bring us. He constantly harped on his incompetent experimental physicist, and an astrophysicist for goodness sake. But worst of all was an Engineer who didn't even have a doctorate."

"Now I want to be fair and clear here. Under normal circumstances, it was really not that much worse than he did at home and certainly no more than we expected when we agreed to go. But what we had not counted on was how we would be more vulnerable."

"It started with the long hours we had been putting in, plus a growing feeling that we were going to fail. But each of us also had our own personal demons. I was the least affected because after all, I have lived with him for a long time and was used to occasionally having to constantly put up with him."

"Raj was the one most affected by being away from civilization and the cold was really beginning to bother him."

"But the one that was most affected by far was Howard. He had always been the one most susceptible to Sheldon. He also realized that there was some truth in what Sheldon said; that if the mission failed, he might be considered the weak link. At a personal level, he was really homesick for his mother. This was intensified by his guilt for leaving her alone."

"It all reached a climax one night. Sheldon had gone to bed and the three of us were sitting up and talking when Howard confessed he had decided we might need to kill Sheldon. He even had a plan. He would throw Sheldon's laptop out the door, and when he went to retrieve it, lock him out. That started a series of all of us venting our frustrations by thinking up more and more exotic and gruesome ways for Sheldon to die."

"Although I knew it was just a result of how frustrated we felt and of course it was nothing we would ever consider doing, I also realized it showed how low morale had gotten and that I needed to try to do something. I resolved to talk with Sheldon the next day and see if we could somehow improve the situation."

"But then a miracle occurred. The next morning Sheldon was unusually quiet at breakfast. After I had retrieved the disk and captured the data, with no hits of course, Sheldon took his laptop to a table in the corner and began to go to work. We of course were stunned and curious, but were not about to disturb him. We had one of the best days for a long time as we played cards and just relaxed."

"This scenario was repeated for the next four days. By then, our curiosity was too much for us and we were about to confront him when he apparently finished and told us he had an announcement."

"What he told us blew me away. He had found a way to program the sensors so they would randomly rotate through his five settings. This would enable us to test all five without having to change them out. It also meant they would get equal time at various times of the day, different temperatures, etc. It would have been an impressive feat done at Caltech over a period of weeks. The fact that he had done it in the field in four days was unbelievable."

"Instantly, we were all excited again. This opened the door to a real new chance that the mission would succeed. For the first time in a while, we were eager to get outside and bring in the sensors. It took two days for Sheldon to get them all programmed. When he finished, it was late, so we decided to put them back out in the morning."

"The next morning Howard made a suggestion. For a moment, I thought he was still angry and messing with Sheldon, but then I realized he was serious, and it was a reasonable request. He suggested that Sheldon should go out with us to place the sensors. He pointed out he had never seen the setup or watched us install the sensors. Perhaps he would see something we had been missing."

"To my surprise, Sheldon readily agreed. We decided that Sheldon would replace Raj. We wanted to leave someone in the cabin in case something happened."

"We went out and while Sheldon watched and noted the location of the base, we installed the sensors. Sheldon did have a couple ideas, and while I really didn't believe they would make a difference, I was glad to make any changes we could."

"We had just finished installing the last sensor, with Howard and I still kneeling in the snow, that the storm hit. I have never been so afraid in my entire life. In just a matter of moments the wind picked up and visibility was rapidly dropping. If I had not been kneeling, I probably would have panicked and tried to run to safety."

"Unfortunately, Sheldon had no such restraints and especially with it being the first time he was outside, he panicked and began to run toward the cabin. Since Howard and I were kneeling, we were like a dead weight which prevented him from running. Now in a complete sense of panic, he had only one thought; get rid of whatever was stopping him from escaping to safety. He quickly unhooked the tether that tied him to us and ran for the cabin, leaving us untethered."

Leonard paused to take a drink from his bottle, and looked at Penny. Her eyes had widened and she opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"My first instinct was to run after him, but by the time we both rose, I could see that would be futile. So, I concentrated on lining my feet with the direction he had run and with his rapidly disappearing foot prints. We decided our only hope was to have Howard line up behind me with his feet on the same line and hope we could keep each other going in the correct direction. By now visibility had dropped to almost zero. One step at a time we started forward, concentrating on staying on line. Howard corrected me on several occasions when he felt I was wandering. At one point, we heard Raj calling out to us and assumed he had come outside to help. We were tempted to head toward his voice, but the wind made it impossible to detect exactly where it was coming from, so we stuck to our plan."

"As it turned out, we hit the very left edge of the cabin. Had it been a few more yards away, or we had wandered any further to the left, we would have missed it completely. We still weren't safe yet though; the wind was now howling and was directly in our face as we headed back for the door. But we yelled out for Raj and he came out to get us. With him tethered to the building we were able to pull ourselves to safety."

 **A/N Thank you for your reviews and I really appreciate your input. I hope the first paragraph gives you an idea of how I envisioned Penny's viewpoint for the purpose of this story.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N I still own nothing.**

Penny reached out and hugged Leonard. "Oh My God, you could have been killed. What was Sheldon thinking? How did you handle it?

Leonard returned her hug, released her, and then continued.

 _ **Flashback**_

 _As Leonard, Howard, and Raj finally got through the door, they were greeted by a surreal sight. Sheldon was sitting calmly with his Laptop in his lap, typing away, not even looking up._

 _Howard immediately rushed toward him shouting, "You crazy bastard, you left us out there to die!"_

 _Fortunately, he was still tethered to Leonard and Raj and couldn't reach him, especially when Leonard stood his ground, sensing that something was strange about Sheldon._

 _Leonard pulled Howard back, telling him to stop, that there was something wrong with Sheldon and besides, "We need to get our wet clothes off and get warmed up."_

 _Howard reluctantly agreed and they all got cleaned up, put on some warm clothes and brewed some coffee. They then returned to stand by Sheldon's chair. Sheldon was still typing._

 _Leonard moved up and looked over his shoulder. To his horror, he could see Sheldon was typing gibberish, over and over. "_

 _Leonard moved and put himself right in Sheldon's view and called out his name. At first Sheldon just ignored him but then looked up and said calmly, "So Leonard, you have come to haunt me already. Is Howard here too?"_

 _Shocked, Leonard stepped back and then tentatively reached out and touched Sheldon's shoulder. Sheldon shrank back, but Leonard said, "It's me, Leonard, I'm alive, we are all here."_

 _Sheldon's eyes widened and seemed to finally focus, "LEONARD, YOU'RE ALIVE?_

 _Leonard smiled, "Yes, Sheldon, we're all alive, we are all here."_

 _Sheldon shook his head and said, "No, I killed you, I killed Howard."_

" _No Buddy, we made it back, we're OK."_

 _Suddenly Sheldon grabbed Leonard in a huge hug, and as he cried out "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," over and over, he began to cry. He sobbed like Leonard had never seen, his whole body shaking. Leonard just hugged him back, murmuring, "It's okay Buddy, it's okay."_

 _Finally, the sobs began to diminish. Then he looked up and said, "Howard, where are you?" Howard moved over and Sheldon hugged him which Howard hesitantly returned. "I'm sorry Howard, can you ever forgive me?"_

 _Howard continued to hug him and said, "It's okay Sheldon, it's over now."_

 _Sheldon finally stepped back and said, "Whatever you want to do with me is fine. I deserve it."_

 _Leonard looked at the others, then looked back to Sheldon, "We're not going to do anything. It could have been any of us. If I hadn't been on the ground, I might have run myself."_

 ** _End of Flashback_**

Penny stared at Leonard. "You let him off scot free?. I don't care how messed up he was, I would have gone all Nebraska on his ass!"

"You're probably right, but can you see us beating up on someone? When we get mad, we don't set up their printer. Besides, I really could understand how he panicked, I have never been in anything close to that before. I really couldn't say I wouldn't have done the same thing in his place. And you didn't see what a state he was in."

"Maybe you 're right about Sheldon, but I know you Leonard, and you would have never done what he did."

"Thank you, Penny, I'd like to think you're right."

Then he took a drink of water, let Penny get comfortable, and continued.

"The next week was almost surreal. You had three of us actually hoping that Sheldon would insult us so we could see he was back to normal, but he stayed subdued and quiet."

"As far as the experiment, all our hopes for the new configuration were proving to be groundless. As we entered the last month, we had to face the fact that the expedition would likely be a failure."

"The next week we did have some good news when Sheldon seemed to get back to being obnoxious and insulting again. But then I realized that unlike us, Sheldon still seemed sure that we would succeed. I realized that it had never occurred to him that the mission would fail, that he would fail. He was in complete denial. I wasn't sure if I should envy him or pity him."

"With less than a month to go, I decided I would try to figure out something that would take our minds off what was happening."

"For a long time,I had been thinking about your gift to me and the hug we had exchanged before I left and decided I wanted to bring back something special for you. I wanted it to be something unique to the Pole. When I thought of the snowflake, I knew it was perfect. Now I saw a way I could get Raj interested in something. I asked him to help me. He immediately got all excited and spewed out all sorts of ideas."

"I still wanted to try to do something similar for Howard. Then I remembered when we arrived that we had found an electric can opener, but discovered that it didn't work. I hadn't really cared since most of the food was in bags and when I did need to open a can, the manual one worked fine. But now I realized that I could challenge Howard to fix it."

"As it turned out, both projects ate up about a week. Howard actually had to create some parts from some metal he found in the cabin. When we showed everyone our snowflake, and Howard demonstrated that the can opener ran, even Sheldon was impressed."

"Then, the next morning, the miracle happened, we got two hits when we brought the disk in. Needless to say, everyone was jubilant. Although Sheldon just accepted it as if he knew it would happen all along. I could see though that his reaction was mostly relief."

"We looked forward to the next day, but nothing happened. We weren't discouraged though, because we assumed it only occurred for a certain setting and certain conditions. We would not be able to determine what they were until we got back and ran the data through the larger computer at Caltech."

"About three days later, I decided to use up some of the cans we had left and check out the electric can opener. It worked perfectly as I opened two cans."

"The next morning, we were excited to get more validation of our success when we got two more hits."

"A couple days after the last hit, I was knocked out of a game we were playing, and decided to while away some time looking at the two days we got hits and see if I could figure out something that was the same, some kind of pattern. I knew it was basically a waste of time because of all the variables involved, but figured it would give me something to do."

"As I expected, I was getting nowhere and was about to put the data away, when I jokingly thought to myself, it did happen right after soup day. Then it hit me, and I felt like somebody had socked me in the stomach. That couldn't be it, it was just a coincidence. I had realized that the two days did have something in common. Howard had demonstrated the can opener before the first hit. Trying to calm myself, I checked again; hoping against hope, that I was mistaken about the date. But deep down I knew it was right, because something this bad would probably be true."

"Even after I confirmed the date, I refused to admit that it was true. After all, it had only occurred twice, stranger coincidences have happened. I decided I needed to confirm it through a controlled test."

"Hoping we would get a hit while I was waiting, it took me three days to work up the courage to test my theory. I made a big deal out of using the can opener again, although I knew they would never suspect it. I still could barely believe it myself. I opened three cans, noting the exact times of each."

"I spent a restless night, literally praying there would not be a hit in the morning."

"But of course, there was. When I checked the times, they corresponded exactly to when I had run the can opener."

"I have often been depressed, but I don't know if I ever felt as low as I did then. I looked over at the others enjoying the latest good news and wondered how I could tell them."

"I ended up convincing myself tomorrow would be soon enough, when they would not be celebrating."

"That night, after Sheldon was asleep, I broke the news to Howard and Raj, to give them a heads-up before I told Sheldon in the morning."

"I was shocked, although I probably shouldn't have been, when they told me I should wait to tell him. There were only two weeks left, they argued. They even framed it as doing it for Sheldon as he would be home and in his spot and be better placed to handle it."

"Of course, I knew the real reason was they didn't want to deal with Sheldon for the last two weeks. I am ashamed now, but I let myself be convinced. I would like to think at least a part of the reason I waited was that I did believe it would be easier for Sheldon when we got home."

"Well, you know the rest, I didn't anticipate he would send out that premature email. Also, I had carefully rehearsed what I was going to say to him, but Howard and Raj torpedoed that."

Penny sat her glass down and looked into his eyes. "So, you didn't cheat him out of a Nobel Prize?"

"No, the experiment itself was never interfered with, the sensors were working and looking for monopoles until the day we left. If I hadn't stumbled on the truth, I am sure Sheldon would have realized they were false when he ran the data through the Caltech computer. The only Noble Prize I took away was the one he had given himself in his head. And I would have done that whenever I told him."

Penny went on, "Were you telling the truth yesterday when you told him the email wasn't a big deal?"

"Yes, it happens all the time. Scientists send out initial evaluations after an experiment, which often don't bear up under future tests. Since he only sent it to people at Caltech, they will reserve judgement until the final paper."

Then Penny asked a question about something that had really bothered her. "Why did you tell Sheldon you did it because of him and that you even had plans to kill him."

Leonard, blushing a little, "Because I was so angry and so frustrated that he interrupted literally the happiest moment of my life."

Penny, raising her eyebrows slightly, got up and moved closer to him. "Literally?"

"Yes, literally." Then smiling, "Of course you know my childhood, so you didn't have much competition."

Penny moved up and pulling him to his feet, put her arms around his neck and pushed her body up against him. "Well, I think you are about to experience a whole series of even better moments." Then she kissed him passionately.

Then someone knocked on the door.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N still owned by Lorre and Brady**

Ignoring the knock, Penny and Leonard continued to kiss, but the knocking grew more persistent, until Penny finally cursed, released Leonard, and yanked the door open. Seeing Howard and Raj, she confronted them with an edge in her voice, "What do you two want?"

Instinctively taking a step backward, Howard said, "Is Leonard here?"

Resignedly, Leonard came to the door, "What is it Howard?"

"Sheldon has run away."

"What makes you think that?"

"He isn't at work and didn't answer us knocking on the door of the apartment. And he sent me a message saying he ran away."

While Leonard was wondering how to answer that, his phone rang. Looking at the caller name, he saw Mary Cooper. Dreading what he was about to hear and tempted to ignore the call, he sighed and answered the phone.

After hearing from Mrs. Cooper what he had expected, and agreeing that it was probably at least partially his fault, he assured her he would take care of it.

When he hung up, he looked at Penny thinking he really didn't want to go to Texas. Going back into the room with her and shutting the door, they kissed again.

Leonard looked at her sadly, "I have to go."

"Are you sure? I know now he is way overacting. He'll be all right."

"No, I did withhold the truth from him and we treated him pretty badly when we broke the news to him. I do owe him an explanation."

"Maybe I should go with you and knock some sense into him."

"As much as I would like to see that, I don't think we should do it in front of his mother."

Sadly, "I guess you're right, you need to go."

After kissing her again, he said, "Maybe Howard and Raj could go."

Smiling, she said, "Don't worry, it's going to happen, I'll be here when you get back."

"Maybe I could go tomorrow."

Smiling again, "Get out of here, take care of that Whackadoodle and come back to me."

Kissing her once more, he sadly exited and joined up with Howard and Raj.

They were able to get on a flight later that day. While the others slept, Leonard sat awake, alternating between thinking of Penny and trying to decide what to say to Sheldon. Finally, deciding he would have to see where Sheldon was at before he could try to determine what to say, he fell asleep thinking of Penny.

They didn't get into Texas until about midnight. They stayed in the Airport and rented a car early in the morning and headed for Mrs. Cooper's house. Leonard was torn between wanting to get it over with and not wanting to face Sheldon. At least some comedy relief was provided by Howard who bought a ridiculous cowboy hat and ended up looking like a character from 'Toy Story'.

Knocking on the door, they were admitted by Mary. As they entered, Sheldon came from a back room and upon seeing them, asked, "What are YOU doing here?

Leonard answered, "We've come to apologize and bring you home."

"I don't want your apology and I have decided to stay here where I have not been betrayed."

Leonard resignedly moved forward and looking into Sheldon's eyes, said, "Sheldon, you and I need to talk."

Sheldon seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, but then turned to his mother. "Mother, Leonard and I will be in my room."

Mary said, "That's fine, Shelly. Don't worry, I'll entertain these two."

The last words Sheldon and Leonard heard as they entered his room and closed the door were, "And take off that silly hat!"

As they entered the room and Sheldon shut the door behind them, Leonard looked around. The room must have been changed to a guest room because it had pictures on the wall that Sheldon would never be part of. But it did have his touch, it was immaculate and the bed made with military precision.

Sheldon walked away from him and looked out a window. As Leonard stood there, wondering how to start, Sheldon turned and asked, "When did you first know that it was the electric can opener?"

"When we had the second series of hits. I was looking at the data and realized both hits had come after we used the opener. But I didn't want to believe it and hoped it was a coincidence, so I decided I needed to do a controlled test. I ran the opener one more time three days later and recorded the times."

Looking back at Leonard, Sheldon asked quietly, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Looking down, Leonard said, "I planned to, Sheldon, I was going to do it the next day. I want you to know Sheldon, I was sick when I figured it out, everyone was so excited, I just hated what I had to do. I told Howard and Raj the night before I was going to tell you. I am so sorry Sheldon, I let them talk me out of it. I'd like to think I put it off at least partly because I thought it would be easier on you if I waited until we were home. I never dreamt you would send out that email, but I wasn't lying when I said that really isn't a big deal."

For the next few minutes, nothing was said as Sheldon continued to look out the window. Just when Leonard felt he needed to say something, Sheldon spoke again, "Didn't you tell me it was because I was so bad you wanted to kill me?"

Leonard, "Sheldon, believe me, it had nothing to do with that. That stuff about the killing occurred way back when we were at our lowest point, when we had been working ten hours a day, changing out sensors. It was just a way we let out our frustrations to each other one night. It had as much to do with our personal demons as anything to do with you. Raj was hating to go outside and Howard was homesick. I'm sorry we threw that out at you."

"Then why did you say it?"

"I can't be sure about Howard and Raj, although they did say it had something to do with some obnoxious, condescending remark you made. I did it because I was angry you interrupted literally the happiest moment of my life when I found out that Penny had romantic feelings for me. You have to know how important that was to me, you of all people know how I feel about Penny. But, it was a cruel thing to do and you didn't deserve it."

"Leonard, literally?

"Yes, Sheldon, literally."

Sheldon then looked back out the window. Without turning around, he started speaking so quietly that Leonard had to strain to hear him. "I really believed this was it, that this is what I had been waiting for my entire life. It never occurred to me that I would fail. To my shame, I let my emotions overcome my scientific integrity." Turning back toward Leonard, he continued, "I should have known there was something wrong with those readings, but I had to believe they were true. I knew my theory was right so they had to be real."

Sheldon continued, "I think now I can look over the data and even though I know the hits are false, make an objective decision as to whether I can tell the difference."

Leaving the window and moving closer to Leonard, "I think I understand why you did what you did and I am sorry I shut you out. I hope I didn't mess up your chances with Penny by telling her you cost me the Nobel Prize. I just wanted it so badly."

Leonard, smiling, "I understand. It's okay, Penny and I are good."

As Sheldon headed toward the door, Leonard asked him. "How about us, Sheldon, are we good?"

Sheldon smiled at him, "Of course we're good, Leonard, we're best buddies!"

Smiling and shaking his head, Leonard followed him out the door.

 **A/N As always, thank you so much for your input. I really do appreciate it.**

 **Just a short epilogue to go.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N – Unfortunately, (or for the excellence of the show probably fortunately :)) I still don't own anything.**

Events unfolded rapidly in the days following their return to Pasadena.

After a slightly awkward beginning, Leonard experienced numerous best moments he ever had (literally), and Penny realized they were also her best.

They ran the data against the Caltech computer and Sheldon discovered he could honestly determine they were false hits and recorded the methodology for doing so.

Sheldon sent a correcting email to the people at Caltech and was pleasantly surprised at the response. Not only did he not get negative feedback, he had several individuals say they were looking forward to his paper.

To be truthful, he did get one jeering reply, but since it was from Kripke, he didn't count it.

Before Sheldon prepared and submitted his final paper, the guys decided they should have a meeting to discuss it, to determine what or what not should be included. With the assumption anything excluded would not go beyond the group.

Since Leonard had told Penny everything, she was invited.

The meeting got off to a rocky start when Raj brought up the night they had spent naked to keep warm. The others yelled at him that they had already agreed that would not be mentioned.

Penny agreed solemnly not to ever discuss it, but the twinkle in her eye suggested she was not being completely truthful.

Howard was the next to speak up, "I don't see where it is of any scientific interest or really of any interest to anyone about the incident with the tether."

Everyone agreed and Sheldon turned to Howard and thanked him. Howard then asked if he could sit in Sheldon's spot. As Sheldon began to twitch, Howard assured him he had been kidding.

Sheldon then spoke up, "Since the discussion took place when I was not present and since it did not directly question my leadership, I see no reason to mention anything about death threats."

Leonard followed up, 'I agree, in fact as far as it goes, we never refused to do as you requested and therefore see no reason to discuss any discord at all."

Sheldon agreed, but did say he wished to leave in the fact that he did have them do the ten-hour days because he felt that had been a logical step.

Once again, everyone agreed.

Then Leonard spoke up, "Since Sheldon has provided proof that the hits were false, I don't think it is of any interest to the academy that they were caused by a can opener."

Sheldon said, "I agree, and therefore it makes no sense to say anything about the can opener at all."

Everyone relaxed and quickly agreed.

Sheldon submitted his paper and the team was called before a committee to discuss it.

Then, about two weeks after the meeting, the committee submitted the paper with the following addendum.

 _Although the committee is of course disappointed that the experiment did not detect monopoles, it believes that the team showed professionalism and explored all possible lines of research._

 _We especially wish to commend Dr. Cooper on his breakthrough process of programming the sensors. That it was done in the field makes it truly extraordinary._

 _The committee also wishes to offer its congratulations to the entire team for their ability to stay focused on the task and avoid the discord that can occur under such trying circumstances._

 _While we must issue a mild reprimand to Dr. Cooper for his premature announcement of the results, we must at the same time, commend him on his timely correction upon finishing his testing._

 _It is also noteworthy that the team was able to determine that the hits were false, and even more impressive, record a methodology for doing so. It is often just as important to determine false data as finding the real data. This information should be of great value for any future expeditions._

 _In lieu of the above, the committee gives its strongest possible recommendation that Dr. Sheldon Cooper, Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, Dr. Rajesh Koothrappali, and Mr. Howard Wolowitz be considered for future projects and thanks them for their efforts._

 _To this we attach our signatures._

 **A/N Well, that's it. Thank you to all who read it and a special thanks to those that provided their input.**


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